


Will Happen, Happening, Happened

by celestialriptide



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Adam (Voltron) Lives, Adam/Shiro (Voltron) Reunion, Adventure Time - Freeform, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bittersweet Ending, Emotional Baggage, Family Dynamics, Fix-It, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, Happy Ending, Introspection, M/M, Memories, Past Adam/Shiro (Voltron), Post S7, Scars, Shiro (Voltron) is a Mess, Sunsets, Time Confusion, Unresolved Emotional Tension, adam can play the guitar, adam survived the plane crash, but god dammit did he survive, heavily reminiscent themes, i dont know what to tag this, like heavily leans on adventure time to move the narrative, no beta we die like men, oh yeah i should tag the big one, or actually more like, with many scars and a missing leg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-10
Updated: 2018-11-10
Packaged: 2019-08-21 11:31:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16575638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celestialriptide/pseuds/celestialriptide
Summary: "If there was some amazing force outside of timeTo take us back to where we wereAnd hang each moment up like pictures on the wallInside a billion tiny frames so that we could see it all, all, allIt will look like, will happen, happening, happenedWill happen, happening, happenedAnd, there we are again and again'Cause you and I will always be back then"





	Will Happen, Happening, Happened

**Author's Note:**

  * For [IdealMina](https://archiveofourown.org/users/IdealMina/gifts).



> Recently, a dear friend came to me asking if I would be willing to write something for her that was outside my normal writing realm, and also my normal shipping realm. She wanted something specific, and I wanted to give it to her to the best of my ability, and then we wanted to give it to you guys. I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

There were a lot of things about the base that had changed since the last time Shiro had seen it four years ago.

  
Seven, he reminded himself. Seven years had been lost since he last saw this base. Time had gone strange, up there in space. Two years in space and two days on Earth, then a year in space, three years for Earth. A year more to travel to Earth.

  
His best friend had gone away for a week and come back two years older than he had been the morning he left, two years spent alone with his mother travelling through the very fabric of space. Two years that showed in his face, his build, how he carried himself. Shiro lost two more years with him in the span of a week, and he still hasn't bounced back from the moment Keith had shown back up at the castle.

  
Then three years passed for them, all of them, in the span of a twenty minute battle against someone they thought, foolishly, was an ally. They watched him die, and for three years the universe thought them dead while they did so. Another year to travel to Earth, packed tight into the lions, the Castle gone in a heartbeat. And Earth thought them dead the whole time. They'd sent Sam ahead with their story, messages for their families, wishes of love and "we'll be home soon"s, then disappeared into the fold between realities in a blinding quintessence filled light.

  
His mind doesn't even want to touch the other part. The part where he died, was dead, for almost an entire year, stuck in the soul of his lion as she kept a hold on his soul. Unable to talk to anyone, to let anyone know, then watching something with his face and voice waltz around the castle while his friends thought it was him. He's not sure how to count that year in space. For his team, it was truly a year, but could he say it had been for him? He hadn't aged, had barely existed. He'd died twenty-five and been revived twenty-five in a body that wasn't actually his, with memories he personally hadn't experienced. Like Keith's two year adventure. He knows he wasn't alive when that happened, but he also was, and god when he has the time to decompress all of everything that comes with his death he will. For now, he'll try an accept it, calling himself twenty-six (because he's not sure if he should count that year. He has the memories, but they aren't his, they're the clone's who's body he stole, so for now he just won't), and say he spent two years with Voltron. He was twenty-three when he went up for Kerberos, and twenty-six when they came came home seven years later.

  
He's just trying to make sense of the time of it all, for now. The arm he'll deal with later, the scars he'll deal with later. The death, the clone, the mind control, he'll deal with as far later as he can. He wishes he had someone to talk about it with, someone who understood, but he's never been an extremely open man. He's sure his team would be able to tell him something, ease his fears, but they're still all kids. Nineteen, for Lance and Hunk. Nineteen, when they should be twenty-two, would be twenty-two if they'd never left. Seventeen, for Katie. Katie, who would be twenty if she hadn't left. He hates that he's what drew them into the desert that night, that he's the reason they've lost years with their families, with Earth.

  
Twenty-two for Keith, who has probably the furthest from the short end of the stick. Shiro thinks it's funny, almost, that had Keith never left he would have been twenty-three. But for Keith, there's no one he's missed those years with at home. Keith might be the best person to talk to about all of this, when he thinks about it. Keith's his best friend, his anchor while they were up there, so it shouldn't be hard like it is. But Keith had left and came back a week later as someone new, and Shiro still hasn't been able to completely bridge that gap in their friendship. Once, he was going to fight for guardianship of him, had the wedding happened before Keith turned 18. Just to get him better benefits, like they had. A secure future, like they had. Like they thought they had. There Kerberos happened, and the engagement was postponed, and Keith was left alone again. Now, the gap in their ages is smaller that it's ever been, and Shiro longs for the things that could have been.

  
That's why he's here, exploring through the once familiar halls of the Garrison, avoiding everyone he's spent the last...whatever amount of years it actually is (for him, specifically, as the only thing he knows for certain is that how long they were up there is relative to each and every one of them) with instead of confiding in any of them, hoping to sort out his thoughts in the silence.

  
It's peaceful, now that civilians have abandoned the base for Atlas (god, another topic he doesn't want to think on too long right now) and the majority of employees keep to the bases central hub. He hasn't run into anyone yet, and he hopes that it stays that way.

  
Shiro likes the serenity of it all, walking routes he hasn't taken since before Kerberos happened. He closes his eyes, and he can almost see the hall filled with cadets and instructors alike, officers and gold medals. He stops next to an open door, gazing in at the common room that looks long abandoned, and he can see shadows of the last time he sat there, on a different couch in front of a long missing television.

  
He can remember long nights spent here, surrounded by friends and sneaking Keith in and away from his own dorm and into a new group of people who treated him more kindly than the cadets around him had. He can remember long evenings leaning into Adam's side, his legs curled up onto the couch with Keith leaning against them as the three of them watched some old show Keith had found that ended years before any of them were born. If Keith's pleading eyes hadn't made him say yes to all the curfew breaks they made to watch it, then Adam's wheedling would have. At the time, he could hardly say no to one of them. Saying no to both was an impossibility, so it didn't happen.

  
He remembers just days before the announcement of the Kerberos mission, days before what would mark the beginning of the end of his entire life as he knew it. If he's honest with himself, and he's trying to be, just so he doesn't have to be honest about anything that happened after he left the atmosphere, then it was probably the happiest moment he can remember. Maybe one of the most content moments of his life. It had been past midnight, and he can remember agreeing to Adam's adamant " _One more episode. It's the last one...we have to finish it, Takashi,_ " and Keith's teasing, half mumbled echo, " _Yeah, **Takashi** , we have to finish it._"

  
He had flicked Keith across his nose, gaining a laugh from Adam as Keith had scrunched up his face and pushed against them, trying to retaliate only to be wrestled into submission by Adam. He had only agreed because it was a Friday, and they had both managed to be duty free the next morning. He closes his eyes, and he can see it there again. Adam's relaxed into the corner of the couch, his feet up on the coffee table with Shiro leaned against him, long legs curling across the cushions. Keith stretched out, somehow, across their laps like some overgrown cat and only half falling off, one arm dangling to the ground while Adam's hand worked through his hair, teasing him about growing it out of regulation. He can almost feel Adam's solid weight against him, arm wrapping tight around his shoulder to bring him in closer as Keith pressed more into them while one small character, alone in the middle of the end of the world, had started singing. He almost chokes up now, at the memory, like he had then.

  
Faintly, he can almost hear the words from the song echoing in the back of his mind. He chases them, eyes still closed as he tries to lose himself in the memory. _Time is an illusion that helps things make sense_...yeah. Right. Okay. Shiro pushes away from the doorway, opening his eyes with a heavy sigh. He scrubs his hands against his face, physically shaking the moment away. He thinks he's done with that particular train of thought for right now. He turns back to losing himself in the Garrison halls. He distances himself as far as he can from the room, until he no longer feels like it's looming over him with everything he's lost.

  
He pushes his way out a set of doors and into sunlight, blinking as he notices how the sun has started to dip towards the horizon. He lets the doors close behind him before leaning heavily against them, letting the sunlight wash over him as he clears his mind. He wills himself to focus on anything other than the memory of any night spent in that room with them, with him, but distantly he can still hear a melody following him, haunting him regardless. He moves to walk away, to put as much distance between himself and the source of the nonexistent sound as he possibly can.

  
He walks for five minutes through some of the actual, long abandoned ruins of the base before he notices that the melody isn't going away. If anything, it's getting louder the further away he gets from the main hub. As he picks his way through what used to be a dorm, he notices the melody change, transitioning into something that pulls at the back of his mind. _Let's go in the garden, you'll find something waiting_...The words come to him before he has a moment to question in, and he lets them pass through his mind without much of a second thought. A moment of recognition hits him, and he moves more steadily towards the melody.

  
Shiro notices, now, that the soft sounds are coming from a some sort of guitar, somewhere within the building. He's familiar with hallucinations at this point in his life. The melody plays through as he searches, trying to find which derelict hall the sound is coming through. He stops, for a moment, and listens. Faintly, he thinks he hears the sound of a voice accompanying the tune. He picks out the words, distantly, but he's not certain his mind isn't inventing it, layering a memory over it like it had earlier. He follows the sound, regardless. He finds himself at what used to be a door to another common room, but it hasn't been used in long enough to be called that any longer. The door is cracked, and he can tell the music is coming from somewhere within. He slips inside as silently as he can, unwilling to disturb whoever is playing decades old songs from children's cartoons.

  
There's no outer wall separating this room from the sunset, just a mess of downed bricks that let the day's last light warm the room as much as it can. Sitting across the room, facing the sunset with head bowed is a man, washed in the orange and pink. It's a beautiful moment, and something about it quiets Shiro. He doesn't recognize the man, not with the sun blocking his view. He'll slip back out, he tells himself, rather than intrude. But the song catches Shiro, and he pauses for just a moment to listen to the man sing.

  
"Everything stays right where you left it." Something bittersweet wells up within him.

  
"Everything stays, but it still changes." A wry smile pulls at his face, and he wonders what force of the universe decided he should hear this.

  
"Ever so slightly, daily and nightly." There's definitely cosmic forces at work here. He doesn't recognize the man, not with the last of the sun casting him as nothing more than a shadow facing away.

  
"In little ways, when everything stays." But he recognizes the voice.

  
It's silent for a moment, in the wake of the end of the song. Shiro watches him move the guitar aside, relaxing against the brick. Shiro startles as he speaks, "I heard you come in. Stop hovering, why don't you come join me?"

  
Something in his chest thumps, hard, and he feels caught. He takes a few steps forward, near silent, before he shakes himself and continues. He doesn't speak, and the man doesn't turn. Shiro carefully sets himself on the wall, a few feet away from him. He watches him turn, barely, and glance at him. Watches him smile, and even through the burn scars that now decorate his face Shiro thinks he's beautiful. Watches him pause, then turn his body fully to face Shiro, eyes wide and shocked.

  
"Takashi?" Shiro smiles at him, looking down at his hands before making eye contact again. He can see, just here, how much Adam has changed. How fully he wears the burdens of what he's gone through, much like he himself has.

  
"Hey, Adam..." the words come out less confident than he'd hoped, more quiet. He had known, vaguely, that Adam was still alive. That Adam had faced the Galra with the rest of the pilots and been the only one to walk away. But they've been back for weeks, now, and he had come to assume Adam had left.

  
"I was wondering when you'd find me." He hadn't stopped to think that Adam had been waiting for him. He understands, only because of how instinctively he knows Adam, that he'd been given space, been given time. Even if stumbling upon him here had been a complete accident, he can't help but silently marvel at what he understands Adam had done for him. Even though it'd been four years, seven for Adam, he'd still been given more time. "You look rough...what happened, captain?"

  
The title is said with a lilt, tilting and soft. Teasing. Shiro feels his face heat, and he runs one hand through his hair as he surveys the Altean one gripping at his leg. He turns his gaze to Adam, looking over him slowly. He takes in the new scars he can see, the ones not covered by his clothing. No one had told him the extent of Adam's injuries, not when Sam had told him about the crash and not in the weeks between then and now. Somehow, he had imagined worse. What he sees isn't good, but it's better than his overactive imagination had cooked up on it's own, and it doesn't make it any easier to breathe around him. His gaze catches for just a moment on his legs, where the hem of the soft shorts he wears meets metal, and he aches for him for just a moment. Not because he pities him, and not because he feels bad for him. His gaze moves back to his own arm, and it's because he understands.

  
"You know...big war against some aliens. Just an average day," he tries to say it with a smile, and it comes out more confident than he feels. There's a tension between them, built from years without contact after messy last words, and he just wants it to go away. "You look pretty rough yourself. Care to explain?"

  
"Big war against some aliens, you know how it goes," he waves a dismissive hand and parrots Shiro's words back to him, his face serious until their eyes meet and he breaks into a grin, and Shiro can't help it. He snorts, looking away as Adam lets out his own bark of laughter. There's nothing funny about it, and they both know it, but it's ridiculous. The tension between them dissolves, and they grow quiet again, and Shiro dares to move closer as they both turn to watch the last few moments of the sunset. It's Adam that finally breaks the silence.

  
"You know, Takashi...I think we have a lot we need to talk about," he says it softly, as if it's not as important of a sentence as it is. And Shiro aches. He thinks of muscle diseases and space kidnappings. He thinks of torture, and scars, and pain. He thinks of death, and near death, and war. Clones, and murder, and mind control. He thinks of space time being relative, four years for one while it's seven for another. And he thinks of a twenty two year old making a decision that's going to change the entire course of his life in the face of being told that he won't be waited for. He wonders what the sentence brings to mind for Adam. He aches, and he clears his throat.

  
"I think..." he sighs heavily, and he feels a weariness settle into him, "that 'a lot' doesn't begin to cover it. I'm not even sure where to start, Adam."

  
Adam smiles at him, small and only a little fragile. Stronger than Shiro feels in this moment. "Why don't we start here? How are you feeling? About anything, really. How are you feeling right now?"

  
Shiro looks out into the distance, and he can feel Adam's gaze hot against his face. He watches out towards the desert, imagining it to be the direction that he had landed before Keith had found him. Before they'd found the Blue Lion. The direction they'd left from, again. He thinks about sitting here next to Adam, about the melody that had led him to this moment. He closes his eyes, and lets the scene wash over him, breathing evenly as he tries to get a read on whatever he's feeling. There's so much going on inside his head, but it's also quiet, like he was meant to be here in this moment. He looks up at the stars that have started to come out over them, and he shrugs.

  
"It's...hard to explain how I'm feeling right now." He feels Adam move beside him, and from the corner of his eye he notices him grabbing the guitar once again.

  
"Hard to explain because you don't know, or hard to explain because you can't put it into words?"

  
"It's hard to put into words. I think it would take hours to put it into words. There's just...so much going on right now."

  
"I think I understand exactly what you mean, Takashi."

  
"Do you think so?"

  
"Yeah. Actually," he leans over, bumping his shoulder against Shiro's and he has to fight the smile that threatens to rise up, "I think I have a song that explains it pretty well. Wanna hear it?"

  
"Do I have much of a choice?"

  
"Well, you could get up and leave, but no, I don't think you have a choice." Adam beams at him, and Shiro closes his eyes. He listens to the first strum, then Adam's voice as it rounds the words. His face splits, and he can't help the laugh that escapes him when he looks back to Adam's smiling eyes.

  
"You're ridiculous." Adam just shrugs, smiling wider as he continues to sing. Shiro rolls his eyes, but he feels light in that moment. He looks back towards the stars, opens his mouth, and starts to sing as well.

  
_Come along with me..._

**Author's Note:**

> I'm want to talk about this real quick, so bear with me. This isn't the happy ending most people want them to have. This isn't their happy ending. This is just first contact. When I started writing this, I went in with the idea that I wanted to write their Big Conversation, the one I want to see them have before they can move forward. The more I wrote, however, the more I wanted to give these two men just one moment of peace together before it happens. Whatever you want to happen next for them, it can happen. I didn't want to write a make up fic. I wanted to write a possibility fic. I only hope I did it right, and that you guys have enjoyed it. 
> 
> As always drop me a comment or kudos if you enjoyed the story, or you can hit me up on tumblr where my url is the same as my username here.


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